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How Much Does A Hurricane Weigh?

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The phrase raining cats and dogs isn't quite right when you talk about hurricanes. This hurricane season, we throw an average one onto a cloud scientist's scale to see just how much water these monster weather machines carry through the sky. NPR's Robert Krulwich and Odd Todd explain how much a hurricane weighs.

A hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone or severe tropical storm that forms in the southern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and in the eastern Pacific Ocean. A typical cyclone is accompanied by thunderstorms, and in the Northern Hemisphere, a counterclockwise circulation of winds near the earth’s surface. http://www.ready.gov/hurricanes
The Weather Channel provide a national and local weather forecast for cities, as well as weather radar, report, and hurricane coverage. http://www.weather.com/newscenter/hurricanecentral/
For up-to-date information on hurricanes currently happening around the United States, check out the National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
Basically, clouds are differentiated by altitude and by shape. This work was pioneered by Luke Howard at the beginning of the 19th century. From his work, we now classify clouds in a couple of ways. The clearest way to understand this system is to examine the Latin roots of the words. See here how we first came to think about clouds and how we classify them to this day: http://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/meteorological-terms/cloud.htm